Such safety devices are used, among other things, in the leg room of passenger compartments in motor vehicles in conjunction with pedal connections by means of a bolt to avoid risks of injury because of direct collisions. The risk of injury is due to the fact that the occupants are unable to absorb the accelerating forces occurring in case of a direct collision, so that, among other things, the lower extremities of the persons sitting in the front area are thrown into the leg room. In addition, it also happens in accidents that a deformation of the engine compartment directly or indirectly affects the pedals and moves these into the interior space of the motor vehicle. The injuries occurring as a consequence are painful for the person or persons affected and may even lead to lifelong mutilation.
Various solutions are known from the state of the art to counteract this circumstance. Mainly two types of safety devices are distinguished. On the one hand, the pedal is prevented from moving in the direction of the interior space of the vehicle by the buckling or bending away of a connecting piece; on the other hand, the pedal is prevented from penetrating into the interior space of the vehicle by the opening of the pedal mounting point, caused by the deformation, e.g., bending, of structural components, e.g., sheet metal. The second approach will be further pursued here.
A safety device that prevents the pedal from penetrating into the leg room by the opening of the pedal mounting point is known from DE 100 40 043 C1. The safety device comprises a bearing block, in which the pedals pivotable around an axis are mounted on bolts, which are fixed in the mounts of the bearing block. The bearing block has at least one expandable section, so that the force acting from the outside in an accident leads to deformation of the front firewall and, as a consequence of this, it expands or spreads apart the bearing block. The expansion can be performed by means of a wedge-shaped element, which is driven between the legs of a bearing block. The kinetic energy necessary for this is obtained from the movement of the motor vehicle parts undergoing deformation in relation to one another in an accident. The bolts mounting the pedals are thus released such that the pedals with the bolt are separated from their brackets and do not penetrate into the leg room.
To make sure that the pedals are moved in the direction of the floor of the vehicle in case of a crash, a pedal holding-down device is usually present.
The prior-art safety device has the drawback that at least the deformation areas must be made of a metallic material, which leads to a relatively heavy weight of the mounting parts. Moreover, the assembly effort needed for the prior-art safety device is relatively great and a relatively large space is needed for installation with a pedal holding-down device.